Profits

In the contentious 2011 budget, Ohio’s lawmakers negotiated a little-known concession with one of the most powerful statehouse forces, the nursing home lobby. The results of that deal play out daily in nursing homes across the state.

It’s more profitable for nursing homes to roll the dice with the potential for enforcement, or litigation, than to hire more staff, especially with some penalties being little more than slaps on the wrist.

The co-founders of a Hixson nursing home business paid themselves six-figure salaries and drove company-financed Porsches while failing to pay employees, utility bills, taxes and creditors, according to court documents.

Mirroring national trends that show an increase in interest by investors in senior living facilities, the number of nursing home/elderly housing facilities that have changed hands is on the rise in Shelby County.